In South County nearly 24,000 residents are reported to be without access to nutritious food, according to the San Diego Hunger Coalition.
Nearly 19,000 residents in Chula Vista do not have access to enough food for an active and healthy lifestyle with some of the high concentration areas at Park Palomar Apartments, Thunderbird Mobile Home Park, Palms Mobile Estates and Castle Park middle and high Schools.
For Hunger Awareness Month, community leaders and elected officials in the South Bay came together Monday morning at the Chula Vista Civic Library for the South Bay Hunger Relief Forum, the first of a series of meetings in discussing hunger in the community.
“This topic [of hunger] is an extremely important one,” said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber. “Obvious to me, since I’ve been in the legislature for years, we’ve had the issue of hunger whether it’s taking its forms in terms of being at the college campus or in other areas because it becomes an extremely important discussion for us.”
Weber authored Assembly Bill 1747, the College Student Hunger Relief Act of 2016, which addresses hunger and food insecurity on California college campuses.
Chula Vista Mayor Mary Casillas Salas said the city is doing their part in making sure no one in the city is left without access to food.
At the beginning of the year, the Chula Vista City Council adopted its first healthy Chula Vista Action Plan, which has more than 60 strategies to develop new partnerships, programs and policies to address food insecurity.
Some strategies include healthy food access through food distribution and food waste prevention, community gardens and adopting a healthy vending policy.
The Chula Vista Police Department also works in collaboration with the County of San Diego and various health organizations as part of their homeless outreach efforts such as food distributions at Chula Vista parks.
Although the department has resources to distribute food to the homeless doing so can be a challenge, said Lt. Kenny Heinz, because that population is wary of police.
The United States Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a state in which consistent access to food is limited by a lack of money and other resources at times during the year.
The problem of food insecurity is a countywide issue, said Amanda Schultz with the San Diego Hunger Coalition.
Throughout the county there are about 423,000 individuals or about 15 percent of the overall population experiencing food insecurity, Schultz said.
Schultz said many San Diegans are also on government assistance. In San Diego County 44 percent of Cal Fresh recipients are children; 40 percent of households have at least one person working. The average time someone is on federal aide is less than two years and only 67 percent of those eligible in San Diego County are enrolled in Cal Fresh.
Schultz said economics plays a vital factor in food insecurity.
“It’s important to recognize that it’s not just poverty that causes hunger but also insufficient income,” she said.
“Eating healthy is expensive, so for the same $4 that it may cost us to purchase a loaf of whole wheat bread, we can buy enough ramen for the week.”
